Comments: Komodo Dragon here is the big hitter of the Lizard League, pretty much taking out three members of the GOTG by himself until Rex finally finished him off. He’s a really strong fighter but he has that extra power of the bacterial effect that is major wicked for even a non-powerhouse type character. With that slapped on him you've got a real team wrecker.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:57 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Comments: Iguana is the slasher/melee specialist of the Lizard League, kinda of an X-23 lite. She didn’t last that long in the big fight with Rex Splode, Shrinking Ray and Dupli-Kate, but she did OK for a while so PL9 felt about right for her.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Comments: Salamander came out pretty expensive for a mook I knew nothing about and did NOTHING of note in the big fight against the Guardians of the Globe…oh, well…

But according to the Wikis, he has the ability to excrete a poisonous mucous that felt like a Reaction Weaken Con to me and then his suit provides him immunity to heat/fire effects and wall crawling. All that added up. He’s still a glass cannon...well, he doesn't really fire anything so I guess he's just a glass lizard, albeit one that can do some damage if you don’t put him down quick.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

COMPLICATIONS:Revenge: He wants revenge on his old gang for letting him get caught, he wants revenge on the people that turned him into what he is and now he wants revenge on the Dynamo 5 for taking him downVulnerable: He is vulnerable to heat/fire effects, taking an extra degree of failure against them

Comments: Bonechill is a Dynamo 5 villain that is a basic ice controller, but he has a cool look, so I thought I would whip him up. The actual Dynamo 5 is coming up in short order, but since I was on a villains kick, I figured I would drop him first.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Design Notes
This is Doctor Betty Swanson a one time ally of Deadpool. Offensively she is PL 5 using pistols. Defensively she is PL 4 due to Dodge and Toughness. She is an A.I.M. agent that was working undercover with a Hydra science team. The team was sent to the Savage Land to search for toxins to convert into bio-weapons. They discovered the head of Deadpool from the earth where Marvel Zombies reign, which could transmit the zombie virus. Deadpool was hired by A.I.M. to recover the head and met up with his contact Betty Swanson. Doctor Swanson and Deadpool had many adventures together where they escaped from Hydra and the Savage Land, finally getting Headpool to A.I.M. only to be attacked by Hydra, being attacked by Man-Thing in a swamp to eventually going to Marvel Zombie earth. Over these adventures Headpool became part of the team and eventually rejoined with his old body and Bill agent of A.I.M.(formerly Bob agent of Hydra) aided them, sorta. Betty really disliked Deadpool but over time he grew on her saving her countless times. Betty, Deadpool, and Bill(Bob?) were eventually able to get back to Earth 616.
Betty has a decent amount of skills being an A.I.M. scientist and a double agent. She is also pretty decent with guns and survived in the Savage Land and went undetected until Deadpool showed up. The equipment she has can definitely change and this is her normal allotment of items as an agent of A.I.M. Why she wears glasses is anyone's guess. Nearsighted? Farsighted? To look intelligent? To look like a hot librarian? I gave her one rank in attractive and decent presence but I could almost see her having two. Though she never really acted like she was hot except for how she dressed.

So I normally get about 10-12 regular titles per month from DC and Marvel. As of late, I have not been very impressed with either's direction, although some titles remain strong. So I decided to branch out a bit and check out stuff from other companies. I've always had my fingers in books like The Darkness, Witchblade, etc. but I hadn't really read much Image stuff. As you all know, I've been all over Invincible and Brit lately, and since Kirkman's stuff has been SO good (I'm actually afraid to start The Walking Dead since I am running out of time and moolah) I decided I would check out Jay Faerber's stuff for Image/Skybound as well, and I decided to pick up the first two trades of the Dynamo 5. And of course, I love it.

If you haven't read it, do. It's really good stuff. To sum up, (this is all clipped from Comicvine to save you all some clicks) Captain Dynamo was the protector of Tower City for forty years following his exposure to an unidentified form of radiation that granted him superhuman abilities, and husband of Maddie Warner, a former agent of a government superhuman monitoring organization known as F.L.A.G. (their SHIELD analogue), who used the cover of an award-winning investigative journalist, now retired. Dynamo is found dead, naked in a hotel bed, murdered by poison, though the details of his death are not released to the public. He was assassinated by Widowmaker (coming up after the 5), who was hired by unknown persons. Although Warner initially does not know this, she does suspect that the condition and setting in which his body was found was not natural, but arranged by whoever murdered him in order to further tarnish his image. In sorting through his personal effects, Warner discovers detailed information on countless incidents of infidelity on his part. Although devastated by the extent of her late husband’s indiscretions, Warner is faced with the problem of Dynamo’s numerous enemies, who will now take advantage of Tower City in his absence. Although other superheroes attempt to pitch in to keep the peace, Warner decides that Tower City needed a permanent protector.

Scouring through the information she gleaned from her husband’s belongings, she locates five young people she believes could be his illegitimate children: Vancouver, British Columbian high school geek Hector Chang (Visionary/Smasher), Washington D.C law student and activist Olivia “Livvie” Lewis (Slingshot/Menagerie), aimless ne'er do well and ladies’ man Spencer Bridges (Myriad/Wraith), Hollywood, California theater employee and NYU Film School graduate Bridget Flynn (Scrap/Supervision), and Eastbridge, Texas high school football star Gage Reinhart (Scatterbrain/Ramjet). Gathering them together, Warner exposes them to the same radiation that Dynamo had been exposed to forty years earlier, unlocking their own latent superhuman abilities, with each one manifesting one of the five powers that their father possessed, Hector (vision powers), Livvie (super-speed flight), Spencer (shapeshifting), Bridget (super-strength) and Gage (telepathy).

Donning costumes, the five of them carry on his legacy as the superhero team the Dynamo 5, while coming to terms with learning about the father they never knew, and the four new half-siblings they each now have. Although the five are unaware that Warner is a former agent of F.L.A.G., she is determined to mold them not only into a team, but into a family as well, and functions as their mentor and “unofficial sixth member”, calling the shots from the same headquarters once used by Captain Dynamo, and keeping in constant remote contact with them during their missions.

All in all, it's a very well written book, focusing on all of their issues with being fathered by a man they never knew, gaining super powers, finding out you have new family members while keeping secret identities with families that are nowhere near Tower City, Maddie dealing with Dynamo's infidelity, etc. Riveting stuff and the action is good, too. Granted, there's few groundbreaking new power sets, but Faerber's villians are analogues of tried and true villain archetypes, including the previously posted Bonechill, The Veil (his HYDRA), Voltage (Electro), Widowmaker (Deathstroke), Strong Suit (a two-bit thug in a power suit) and his girlfriend, War Chest (Titania, and she is SO coming up soon, and I think you all will see why). And their main nemesis, their sister Synergy who got all of Captain Dynamo's powers and got to spend time with him learning how to use them so she is able to take on the rest of her siblings 1 on 5 and come out on top most of the time.

And now, Faerber has switched things up to where Synergy blasted them with the anti-radiation that gave them their powers and took them away, then Maddie was able to re-blast them with the some radiation that gave them powers and now they've all switched up so now they're working like this:

So now Livvie is the shapeshifter, Gage got flight, Spencer got telepathy, Hector got the super-strength and Bridget got the super-vision powers. I suspect this is a precursor to them getting all powers, or switching up again, so I'm hesitant to make their new versions, but you know me, I'll crack and do it later because I am a build-aholic. But here they are in their original versions and I hope you enjoy and pick up those trades!

COMPLICATIONS:Daddy Issues: All the members of the Dynamo 5 struggle with the fact that they are illegitimate children of Captain DynamoEnemy: Synergy, Widowmaker

Identity: All of the Dynamo 5 try to maintain their secret identities from the public, but most importantly, their parents…Inexperienced: As a new superhero, she sometimes makes rookie mistakesPower Loss: If her powers are drained, her stats drop to STR 1, STA 1Relationships: Her father (not Captain Dynamo, the man who raised her)Responsibility: Protecting Tower City as a member of the Dynamo 5

Comments: Bridget is Scrap (and I love that name), the brick of the team and one of the better young heroes in the group. Livvie (Slingshot) originally comes off as the team leader but Bridget grows into the real leader when the team splits up for a while and she recruits new members to fill in and protect Tower City until they resolve their issues. I almost made her the lone PL9 in the group simply because she moves very well for a brick and I don’t think I gave her enough defense simply to keep her at PL8. Oh well, maybe I’ll do another more experienced version of her later.

At the moment she has Visionary’s powers and is called Supervision during the whole team power switcheroo. I'll build that version later.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I found Dynamo 5 just before their big shift in powers and end of the ongoing series, and you're right; it's a great read. My only problem is my nearest comic store is a 40 minute drive from where I live & honestly I don't have the cash to support driving there once a week & buying that title & a few others (I've been putting off getting the TPBs here lately, but it's on my to do list....just a matter of coming up with the funding mostly).

I did builds of the kids & Maddie awhile ago but didn't have enough info on some of their villains, so your build of Bonechill & other baddies are what I'm looking forward to the most but I'll admit I'm interested in seeing your take on the kids. Just to have as a rough comparision to mine (even though my builds are in 2e & yours will be 3e).

Dynamo 5 are pretty cool, but, I really hate the team powerswap. D5 isn't the first team to have undegone it, so it's not like it's unique to them (though in most cases it's a temporary plot device), but it is a trope I just never cared for.

COMPLICATIONS:Daddy Issues: All the members of the Dynamo 5 struggle with the fact that they are illegitimate children of Captain DynamoEnemy: Synergy, WidowmakerIdentity: All of the Dynamo 5 try to maintain their secret identities from the public, but most importantly, their parents…Motivation: She is driven to be the best at everything she does and sometimes she takes too much on herselfRelationships: Her father, her boyfriendResponsibility: Protecting Tower City as a member of the Dynamo 5

Comments: Slingshot is sort of the de facto field leader of the Dynamo 5 at the beginning and she really shines as a supporting character. She sets them up and lets Scrap, Visionary or Scatterbrain take them down. She ends up having a good arc as someone finds out her secret identity and kidnaps her dad, causing her to have to reveal her secret and having she and her dad really deal with the fact that her mom, who had passed away sometime back, had cheated on him.

During the power switch, she got the shapeshifting powers and is now Menagerie. However, whereas Spencer could only morph into humanoids, Livvie can only change into animals right now. I'll be interested to see how that all shakes out.

Last edited by Thorpacolypse on Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tattooedman wrote:I found Dynamo 5 just before their big shift in powers and end of the ongoing series, and you're right; it's a great read. My only problem is my nearest comic store is a 40 minute drive from where I live & honestly I don't have the cash to support driving there once a week & buying that title & a few others (I've been putting off getting the TPBs here lately, but it's on my to do list....just a matter of coming up with the funding mostly).

I did builds of the kids & Maddie awhile ago but didn't have enough info on some of their villains, so your build of Bonechill & other baddies are what I'm looking forward to the most but I'll admit I'm interested in seeing your take on the kids. Just to have as a rough comparision to mine (even though my builds are in 2e & yours will be 3e).

I actually checked out your 2E versions before I finished up my 3E. I think we're pretty close in content, thought I really tried to push them up to 120 pts most of the time, even though they could easily be built with less for these starter versions. I always like to compare just to see what our visions are for the same characters.

I couldn't pass on some of their villains, their names are just too fun. Especially Strong Suit and War Chest. I just have to find a decent pic of Strong Suit.

Horsenhero wrote:Dynamo 5 are pretty cool, but, I really hate the team powerswap. D5 isn't the first team to have undegone it, so it's not like it's unique to them (though in most cases it's a temporary plot device), but it is a trope I just never cared for.

I'm hip, my man. Sometimes it's fun for a couple of issues but I don't like them long term. The Superman/Batman "Super-Bat" arc was fun, but having Bruce with Kryptonian powers was not something I'd want to see long term. Nor did I like it when the FF did it for a while (especially in the second movie). But at least it gives me more builds to waste time with.